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Copyright 1932 
National Woman’s Christian 
Temperance Union 




“It Is Written” 


Bible Stories for Boys and Girls 


Christine I. Tinling 




Price Fifteen Cents 


National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union 
Evanston, Illinois 



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.T5S 

It) lit) 


INTRODUCTION 

Popular demand if or Miss Christine I. Tinling’s temper¬ 
ance lessons and stories insures a wide welcome for these 
attractive narratives of Bible heroes. 

In the temperance education of children there is nothing 
more important than a “Thus Said the Lord,” for the great 
principles of our reform. Miss Tinling’s stories will also 
imbue young people with a deep and intelligent love of the 
treasures to be found in the Book of books. 

Anna A. Gordon. 

Rest Cottage, Evanston, Illinois. 


- , i 1 ' i .£•«.« 


JUL IS 1532 

©ClA A 


101079 


FOREWORD 


Dear Boys and Girls :— 

There is a certain word you are very fond of using—the 
little word, “why?” When you see this story-book some of 
you will be sure to ask, “Why has it this strange name?” 
I will tell you. 

We read in the New Testament how the Lord Jesus, 
before He began his ministry, was led by ithe Spirit into the 
wilderness. He spent forty days there and neither did 
eat nor drink. He was alone in that waste land; the wild 
apimals roamed about His path, the vultures sailed in the 
blue sky above, and the Devil himself came and tempted 
Him. Satan tried every way he could think of to make 
Jesus sin just once. 

Do you know how our Savior overcame every tempta¬ 
tion? He answered the enemy by a sentence from God’s 
holy word. Three times over He quoted the Scripture, say¬ 
ing, “It is written,” and the Devil could do nothing more, so 
he left Him. 

Even we may learn to overcome Satan if we will follow 
the Lord Jesus in this. Every time we are tempted to do 
wrong, let us try and remember what the Bible says, and 
reply, “It is written.” “The sword of the Spirit is the Word 
of God,” and if in youth we learn to wield it, we shall be 
victorious over our great foe. In this little book we shall 
study what God’s word says about strong drink and so we 
shall always be able to resist the temptation to use it. Will 
you not therefore try to memorize perfectly the one or two 
texts that you find in each lesson? 

Your loving friend, 


Christine I. Tinting. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

The Boy in the Desert... 5 

The Wise Man’s Words..... 9 

A Narrow Escape. 14 

True to Their Pledge. 18 

A Brave Resolve.......* 22 

Three Mighty Men. 28 

Running the Race. 32 

The Boastful King ..'... 37 

How a Great City Fell. 40 

The Scouts’ Tale. 45 












THE BOY IN THE DESERT 

Genesis 21:1-21. 

The boy Ishmael was fond of teasing and that habit got 
him into trouble. This is how it happened. When he was 
about fourteen a baby brother came into the home and was 
named Isaac. Probably Ishmael was not particularly glad 
to see the new baby, for everyone paid so much attention to 
him, and when he was about two years old a great feast was 
held in his honor. Ishmael had been the only child and so 
had always gone about with his father Abraham visiting the 
flocks and herds and learning many things about the cattle 
business. Abraham was very rich and everyone looked upon 
Ishmael as his heir. 

When the new baby came, however, Ishmael learned that 
he must now take second place. Naturally this seemed 
hard. Though they had the same father the boys had differ¬ 
ent mothers, so they were half-brothers. The name of Isaac’s 
mother was Sarah; Ishmael’s mother was named Hagar. 
Hagar was only a slave, so her son had to give up the heir¬ 
ship to the son of the free wife, Sarah. 

About the time of the great feast in honor of Isaac, 
Ishmael was one day teasing him, as boys often love to do. 
Ishmael probably meant no harm, though he may have been 
a bit jealous and have thought the little toddler a very small 
person to make so much fuss about. Sarah happened to see him 
and she was very angry. She said to Abraham that he must at 
once get rid of both Ishmael and his mother for she would 
not have them in the home. This made Abraham very un¬ 
happy but he felt obliged to do as his wife said. God com¬ 
forted him about it and promised that all should turn out for 
the best. Isaac was in truth to be the heir, but Ishmael also 
would be great. God promised to bless the boy and to make 
him the head of a nation. 

So early in the morning Abraham rose and sent Hagar 
and Ishmael away. It grieved him sadly to say goodbye to 
the son he loved so much. He took a loaf of bread and filled 
a bottle with water and gave them to Hagar for the journey. 
It was not the kind of bottle that we are accustomed to 
using, but was most likely made of skin. The desert tribes 


6 


“IT IS WRITTEN 


still use these skin bottles. When they kill an animal they 
cut off its head and feet and then take the carcass out o»£ the 
skin without opening it further, and thus there is formed an 
odd-shaped bottle in which they keep their water or milk 
or oil. Sometimes the neck of the animal serves to form the 
neck of the bottle and the thighs do for handles. Then straps 
are fastened on, and thus the bottle is slung over the shoulder. 
These skin bottles are more serviceable for traveling than 
earthenware ones, which would easily break. Hagar’s was 
probably made from a kid-skin. 

Thus supplied with food and drink Hagar and Ishmael 
started off, and for a time all went well. The early part of 
the day was cool and pleasant, but as the hours passed by 
the sun grew hotter and hotter and they became very weary. 
They walked in the direction of Egypt, for Hagar had come 
from that country and now that she was in trouble it seemed 
the best place to go. 

The way lay across the desert. That is a wild and lonely 
tract. The soil is dry and stony and very few things grow 
there, for water is scarce. Everything that lives must have 
water and where it is not to be had neither plants nor animals 
can exist. Some plants can manage with less than others 
and these hardy ones are found on the desert. Several kinds 
of wild animals roam over the waste, such as pelicans, 
ostriches and jackals. The ostriches are immense birds, 
taller than a very tall man. Instead of flying they run, and 
they can easily out-distance a horse. They make a strange 
noise, something like the roar of a lion. The ostrich lays 
her eggs in a hole in the sand and covers them over so the 
sun keeps them warm in the daytime, and at night the bird 
sits on them to warm them. The wild desert is their home, 
but God who made them supplies their needs as He does 
ours. “It is written”: The beast of the field shall honor me, 

THE DRAGONS AND THE OSTRICHES, BECAUSE I GIVE WATERS IN THE 

wilderness.* Animals have a wonderful power of smell and 
they can scent water a long way off. So in this respect they 
have an advantage over human beings. 


Isaiah 43 :20, margin. 



IT IS WRITTEN 


7 


Hagar and Ishmael doubtless tried to be careful and spar¬ 
ing with the water in their skin bottle, but as the sun poured 
down more and more fiercely they were obliged to slake their 
thirst and at last the water was all gone and they were no¬ 
where near their journey’s end. 

Ishmael began to feel sick and ifeverish and soon he could 
go no further, so his mother made him lie down under one of 
the scrubby bushes that grew along the way. She was sure 
that as the water was gone and there was no more to be 
found, her boy must die of thirst and fever. People can live 
sometimes a long while without food, but no one can live 
without water. Hagar could not bear to see Ishmael suffer. 
It was terrible enough to have to bear the thirst herself, but 
she minded it worse for the boy, so she went a little distance 
from him and gave way to her grief, shedding bitter tears. 

Though Ishmael was only a young boy he did a wiser 
thing than his mother. Instead of crying in this desperate 
situation he prayed to God. And God, who is ever ready to 
listen to us, heard the boy under the bush and answered him. 
The angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said unto 
her, “What aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath 
heard the voice of the lad where he is.” Then God showed 
her a well of water, and she quickly dried her eyes and went 
and filled the skin and gave Ishmael a drink. This soon 
revived him; the fever passed away and he was able to con¬ 
tinue the journey. Besides thus saving his life, God renewed 
his promise to Ishmael and said He would make Ishmael a 
great nation. Hagar and her son remained in the wilderness 
and he grew up and became a strong man and a famous archer. 
He probably never forgot how he nearly died that time for 
want of water and how wonderfully God heard his prayer. 

Water is one of the very few things we cannot do without. 
What a good thing it is that in our country there is plenty 
of it and it is free to all so that no one need go thirsty. How 
strange that anyone should buy harmful drinks, such as beer, 
wine, and whisky which cost a great deal of money when 
they can get pure water for nothing. Alcoholic drinks never 
quench thirst; they only make a person more thirsty than he 
was before. Water is the great thirst quencher and we may 


8 


“IT IS WRITTEN 


drink as much of it as we wish. It will do us good every 
time and help to keep our bodies in health. 

We read in the Bible many stories about the desert. When 
the Israelites took their journey from Egypt into the Prom¬ 
ised Land, they wandered about in the desert for forty years. 
They were often in need of water and God made it gush 
forth from the solid rock 'for them. The psalmist says “He 
turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain 
of waters.”* At last He led them into “a good land, a land 
of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out 
of valleys and hills,”** where they had plenty of this best 
kind of drink for themselves and their children and their 
cattle. 

Water is useful not only for drinking, but in many other 
ways as well. We need it in order to be clean and so we 
use it outside as well as inside. Were there not plenty of 
water for washing clothes and scrubbing the house and plenty 
in the kitchen for cooking, we should indeed be in serious 
difficulty. In fact there would not be anything to cook if 
water did not make things grow for the use of men and 
beasts. I wonder how many of us have ever thought of 
thanking God for this precious gift, so plentiful and so free. 

I am sure you are fond of a good drink of cool water. In 
the hot summer weather do you remember the dumb animals 
and see that they have enough to drink, since they cannot 
ask for it? Do you think of the old people and the sick who 
may be in your home, and offer to get them a refreshing 
drink? The Lord Jesus said, “Whosoever shall give a cup of 

WATER TO DRINK IN MY NAME, VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, HE SHALL 
NOT LOSE HIS REWARD.”*** 


* Psalm 114:8. 

**Deut. 8:7. 

***Mark 9:14. 



IT IS WRITTEN 


9 


THE WISE MAN’S WORDS 

I Kings 3:1-15. 

“What do you want for Christmas?” Did father or mother 
ever ask you that question? It is very nice to be able to have 
one’s choice and to get something that perhaps one has been 
wanting for a long time, such as a pair of skates, a beautiful 
book, or maybe even a watch. 

Once, long ago, a young man was told, not by his father 
but by God himself, to ask for whatever he wanted. God, 
who made the worlds and who declares, “The silver is mine 
and the gold is mine,” said to him, “Ask what I shall give 
thee.” This young man was King Solomon. He was the son 
of David and his name means peace. David was a man of 
war; he had for many years to fight and flee by turns because 
his enemy Saul constantly sought his life. Even after he 
became king there was still more fighting to do and David 
was often weary of war and bloodshed. He hoped that the 
son who was to succeed him would have a different kind of 
life and so he named him Solomon, or the man of peace. 

Solomon grew to manhood under the care of the noble 
prophet Nathan and he most likely received lessons also from 
some of the priests and Levites. When he was about eighteen 
his father died and he became the king. We are told that the 
young king loved the Lord and walked in the statutes of 
David his father. Because he was full of gratitude to God 
for putting down his enemies and strengthening him in his 
kingdom, he went up, soon after his accession, to a place called 
Gibeon to offer sacrifice. He invited all Israel to join him, 
specially asking the captains and the judges and the govern¬ 
ors and the chief of the old men. A great congregation gath¬ 
ered together for that sacrifice, and Solomon offered no less 
than a thousand burnt offerings upon the altar. That night, 
when it was all over and the crowd had dispersed and gone 
to their homes and the king was asleep in his bed, God ap¬ 
peared to him in a dream and said, “Ask what I shall give 
thee.” 


10 


IT IS WRITTEN” 


'What a wonderful chance this was! He had only to ask 
and God would give him the thing he wanted most. Many 
people would have asked for riches; others would have asked 
for fame; some would have prayed that they might be vic¬ 
torious over their enemies, and some no doubt would have 
wished to live to a very great age. But Solomon asked for 
none of these things. He said to God, “Give me now wisdom 
and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this 
people, for who is able to judge this thy people that is so 
great?” He felt it was a serious thing to be the ruler of a 
nation, and what he wanted most of all was wisdom to do 
his work well. God was very pleased with this answer and 
promised that he should not only have the wisdom : he had 
desired, but also the riches and honor that he had not asked 
for. Soon his fame spread among all the nations round about. 
People came from distant lands to hear his wisdom and to 
see the greatness of his court. He knew all about beasts and 
birds and creeping things and fishes; he was familiar with all 
the plants and trees, great and small; in fact, he seems to 
have known about everything. He was a writer as well as a 
king and composed more than a thousand songs, but he is 
best remembered by the book of proverbs. 

In ancient times, when there was no printing and every 
book had to be written out by hand with great labor, people 
got into the habit of trying to say as much as possible in a 
few words. Thus proverbs became general. A proverb is a 
sentence that says a good deal in a short space. Solomon 
wrote three thousand of these. The book called Proverbs 
was not quite all written by Solomon. There are some pas¬ 
sages in it by other wise men, just as the Psalms include some 
that were not written by David. But most of this book was 
written by King Solomon and it is a book that all young 
people should read, for it was intended chiefly for them. If 
you will merely glance at it you will see that of the first 
seven chapters five begin with the words, “My son.” There 
are many dangers in life and of course older people know 
more about them than do young people, because they have 
been through such experiences. 


IT IS WRITTEN 


11 


Solomon himself got into trouble from time to time, for he 
did not always and only do right. As he looked back he felt 
a desire to warn boys concerning several of these dangers. 
Let us see what he had to say about that thing that has 
spoiled so many lives, strong drink. The words of the wisest 
man will surely be worth remembering. 

“Hear thou, my son, and be wise, 

And guide thine 'heart in the way. 

Be not among winebibbers; 

Among riotous eaters of flesh; 

For the drunkard and the glutton 
Shall come to poverty, 

And drowsiness shall clothe 
A man with rags.”* 

In your study of hygiene you learned that alcohol is a nar¬ 
cotic poison and that it benumbs the brain. This causes 
drowsiness or sleepiness, and when a person is stupefied in 
this way he cannot work properly. Even when people take 
so little that they do not feel any harm, their brains are more 
or less injured and they are not so alert as they otherwise 
would be. Of course if they don’t work hard they can’t get 
on in the world and they are likely to become poorer and 
poorer. This is what the wise man meant when he said, 
“Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.” 

Grapes grew abundantly in Solomon’s country where many 
of the hillsides were covered with vineyards. Two kinds of 
wine were made; one was good, and the other evil. Sometimes 
people merely squeezed the fresh, ripe grapes and made a 
wholesome drink from them. Travelers in Palestine tell us 
that many make this grape juice there today. Grapes are 
used in several other ways. When newly gathered they are 
eaten with bread and form the chief part of many a meal in 
an Oriental home. The owner of a vineyard will preserve a 
good many as raisins. He spreads the grapes in the sun to 
dry, and turns them over every now and then, and sprinkles 
them with olive oil to keep the skins moist. The good house¬ 
wife likes to have a plentiful supply of raisins for the winter. 


Proverbs 23:19-21. 



12 


IT IS WRITTEN 


Altogether, the vine is one of God’s most useful gifts to men. 
But in all ages they have misused it and made the harmful 
drink against which Solomon warned in his day. 

The alcohol in home-made wine or cider is just the same 
thing as the alcohol manufactured in any brewery or dis¬ 
tillery and it is never anything but a poison. It caused trou¬ 
ble of all sorts in Solomon’s time, just as it does today. Here 
is something more that the wise man said about it: 

“Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? 

Who hath contentions? who hath babbling? 

Who hath wounds without cause? 

Who hath redness of eyes? 

They that tarry long at the wine; 

They that go to seek mixt wine. 

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, 

When it giveth its color in the cup, 

When it goeth down smoothly: 

At the last it biteth like a serpent 
And stingeth like an adder.”* 

Everybody who wants to have a good time should try to 
understand these words of the wisest man. They are not 
easy for boys and girls to learn, and most likely you think 
they are not interesting, but they are far more important 
than any lesson you will ever have in history or geography 
or mathematics. So let us see what they mean. We s'hall all 
have some troubles in this world, sooner or later, but those 
who use strong drink bring on themselves extra and unnec¬ 
essary trouble, “woe” and “sorrow.” Alcohol causes “con¬ 
tentions” or quarreling. It gives people “wounds without 
cause.” Those who use it have much more sickness and dis¬ 
ease than total abstainers, and when they are ill or injured 
they are slower in recovering. Wine sometimes looks at¬ 
tractive, especially at a party when the lights are bright and 
the silver and glass sparkle and shine. But the wise man 
says, though it looks good, it is like a deadly serpent. 


Proverbs 23:29-32. 



IT IS WRITTEN 


13 


There are about sixteen hundred different kinds of serpents 
or snakes in the world, many poisonous but some not. In 
India about twenty thousand persons are killed by snakes 
every year. Here in America we have the rattlesnakes and 
you all know how dangerous they are. The adder or com¬ 
mon viper is found in many countries and little vipers only 
five minutes old, have been known to bite and kill mice. Of 
ail the dreadful and dangerous animals that men have to fight, 
there are none worse than venomous snakes. 

Strong drink is like a snake in three ways. 

1. It kills by means of the poison that it contains. The 
poison of the snake is called its venom or virus ; the poison of 
strong drink we call alcohol. Snake-venom kills the body 
only; alcohol kills both body and soul. 

2. The Bible says the serpent is the most subtle of all the 
beasts of the field. “Subtle” here means sly. The serpent 
steals up on people silently and unawares and kills them be¬ 
fore they can get away. So does strong drink. People don’t 
expect to be killed by it; they are deceived into thinking it 
will not hurt them. At first it seems pleasant and harmless; 
but “at the last” it often kills. 

3. Venomous snakes often have a terrible power to fasci¬ 
nate. Birds know the snake is their enemy but they will fly 
right to it and be killed. In the same way men fall under the 
spell of drink and go to it though they know it will destroy 
them. 

You would not play with a serpent; you would kill it or 
get out of its way. You would be far to wise and wary to 
take it in your hand and run the risk of its biting you. Sol¬ 
omon says we ought to be just as wise in regard to wine, and 
not even stand looking at it for ifear we might be persuaded 
to touch it. If ever it is offered to you, even in the grandest 
company or by the kindest hostess, do not accept the wine 
any sooner than you would take an adder or a rattlesnake. 
Remember, “It is written”: Look not thou upon the wine 

WHEN IT IS RED. At THE LAST IT BITETH LIKE A SERPENT AND 
STINGETH LIKE AN ADDER. 


14 


“IT IS WRITTEN” 


A NARROW ESCAPE 

I Samuel 25:1-38. 

In the days when David was fleeing for his life from his 
enemy, King Saul, there lived a certain rich man named 
Nabal. He owned a large quantity of land and raised s'heep 
and goats. His flocks numbered three thousand sheep and one 
thousand goats, and in the spring Nabal’s shepherds led 
their sheep to the uplands of Carmel where there was plenty 
of juicy grass. 

Nabal belonged to a good family and was a descendant of 
Caleb, one of the noblest characters in Bible history. But 
he was a very different man from his great ancestor; he was 
“churlish and evil in his doings” and had an exceedingly 
bad temper. Perhaps the chief reason for this was his love 
of drink, for alcohol spoils the temper more than anything. 
He had a wife named Abigail, who was altogether better 
than he deserved. She was a woman of good understanding 
and of a beautiful countenance. Morever she feared God and 
tried to do right as far as she knew how. 

Once a year came the time of sheep-shearing. You can 
imagine what a busy season this was, and how many men 
were required to shear those three thousand sheep. Of course 
extra help had to be employed. After each day’s task was 
done the shearers enjoyed an ample feast, and strangers and 
poor folks were heartily welcome also. There were stories 
and jokes and songs when the meal was over, and altogether 
it was a very jolly time. But it was a pity that strong drink 
had a place upon the board. Nabal was particularly fond of 
it and when he began to drink he did not know how to stop. 

One day when the shearing was in progress there appeared 
a party of ten young men to see Nabal. They said they had 
brought him a message from David. David was at this time 
an outlaw. He had been obliged to flee because King Saul 
sought his life. Friends and relatives had gathered around him 
and formed a little faithful band. Sometimes they lived in 
caves in the mountains, sometimes they hid among the trees 
of the forest, and again they wandered about in the desert. It 


“IT IS WRITTEN” 


15 


was not always easy to find food to eat and they needed a 
great deal, for soldiers living in the open air usually have 
keen appetites. Often they were able to be of some use to 
Nabal’s sheepmasters and received supplies from them in re¬ 
turn for such services. The shepherds were glad to have 
their help, particularly as they were honest men and David 
had commanded them not to touch the sheep or goats how¬ 
ever hungry they might be. David would not steal; he pre¬ 
ferred to ask courteously for what he needed, so he sent these 
ten young men as a deputation to Nabal. 

It was a very respectful and courteous message that they 
brought. “Peace be to thee, and peace be to thine house, and 
peace be to all that thou hast. Now thy shepherds which 
were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought 
missing to them all the while they were in Carmel. Where¬ 
fore let the young men find favor in thine eyes, for we come 
in a good day; give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine 
hand unto thy servants and to thy son David.” David was 
not his son, of course. This was just an affectionate way of 
speaking. Many a soldier would have demanded from the 
ranchman all he needed. David only asked modestly for 
whatever Nabal could best spare in return for the services 
he and his men had rendered. 

i 

If Nabal had been in his right mind he would gladly have 
sent what was requested so as to earn David’s continued 
protection from the Arabs that roamed the country and other 
robbers. But he had been drinking wine so his brain was 
muddled. Alcohol poisons the brain cells so that a man can¬ 
not think properly or reason aright. In consequence, he is 
apt to imagine others are intending injury to him when this 
is far from being the case. In this way liquor makes people 
quarrelsome. It probably is the cause of more quarrels than 
anything else in the world. 

The wine made Nabal misunderstand and he answered the 
messengers rudely, “Who is David, and who is the son of 
Jesse?” When he said, “The son of Jesse,” he showed that he 
knew all the time exactly who David was, though he pre¬ 
tended to be ignorant. “Shall I then take my bread and my 


16 


IT IS WRITTEN 


water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and 
give it unto men whom I know not from whence they be?” 
continued Nabal. Now nobody had asked, him to deprive 
his shearers of their food. David knew Nabal was immensely 
rich and that there would be plenty to spare at the feast. 
Besides, he and Nabal belonged to the same tribe and it had 
seemed natural that they should be friendly. 

The ten young men did not stop to argue. They turned 
and went back the way they came and told David all about 
the insolent reception they had received. David was very 
angry and determined to go at once against Nabal and destroy 
him. “Gird ye on every man his sword,” he commanded, and 
they did so. There were six hundred soldiers in the troop, 
and David started out with four hundred of them, leaving 
the remainder to guard the baggage. , 

Happily one of Nabal’s servants had more sense than his 
master. This man was a shepherd and he knew the value of 
David’s protection and realized that Nabal’s rudeness would 
bring dreadful trouble on them all. It was of no use in the 
world to argue with a man who was the worse for wine, so 
the shepherd hurried off to the mistress of the house. When 
the servant found Abigail he told her all, and added that 
the messengers had stated the exact truth. “They were a 
wall unto us,” he said, “all the while we were with them 
keeping the sheep. Now therefore know and consider what 
thou wilt do, for evil is determined against our master.” 

Then Abigail made haste and she took two hundred loaves 
and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched 
corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes 
of figs, and started for David’s camp. 

She sent her servants before her with the presents and she 
came riding behind on her donkey down the hill. At this 
very moment David and his band came down the opposite 
hill and David was surely surprised when he saw this beautiful 
woman coming towards him. Quickly she alighted and came 
and threw herself at his feet and begged him to listen to her 
request. She said she was not at home w^hen the messengers 


“IT IS WRITTEN 


17 


arrived and as for her husband she was ashamed of him. The 
word “Nabal” means “fool.” Fool was he by name, said Abi¬ 
gail, and fool was he by nature. This was plain speaking and 
it is not often proper to use such a word. But when Abigail 
thought how nearly Nabal’s insolence had caused the death 
of all her household, she felt that this bad name was no more 
than he deserved. Certainly there cannot be anything more 
foolish than to use a poison that will benum'b one’s brain and 
so bring disaster on oneself and others. Abigail apologized 
to David humbly for her husband’s rudeness. She told him 
she knew he was a servant of God, and that God would bless 
him and save him from his enemies and finally make him king. 
She appealed to his mercy and said she felt sure he would 
not come against her people to destroy them. David listened 
to her graciously and replied, “Blessed be the Lord God o-f 
Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me, and blessed be 
thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day 
from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with 
mine own hand. Go up in peace to thine house,” and Abigail 
returned home a happy woman. 

Next day, when Nabal had slept off the effects of his wine, 
Abigail related the whole story. When Nabal heard what a 
narrow escape he had had, and how a small army had marched 
against him and had only been turned back by his wife at the 
foot of the hill, it gave him a great shock. This brought on a 
severe attack of illness and he seems to have had a fit. Some 
think it was apoplexy and that he broke a blood vessel in the 
brain. At any rate this very thing often happens to those 
who drink, for alcohol injures the walls of the vessels and 
makes them brittle. Nabal lingered ten days, cared for by 
his faithful wife, and then he died. He left only t'he memory 
of a wasted life, spoiled by strong drink. He was one of those 
of whom “It is written”: Woe unto them that rise up early in 

THE MORNING THAT THEY MAY FOLLOW STRONG DRINK, THAT CON¬ 
TINUE UNTIL NIGHT, TILL WINE INFLAME THEM! AND THE HARP AND 
THE VIOL, THE TABRET AND PIPE ARE IN THEIR FEASTS, BUT THEY 
REGARD NOT THE WORK OF THE LORD NEITHER CONSIDER THE OPER¬ 
ATION of His hands. Isaiah 5:11-12. 


f 


18 


“IT IS WRITTEN” 


TRUE TO THEIR PLEDGE 

Jeremiah 85:1-19. 

No doubt you have sometimes had object lessons at school. 
It is easier to understand things and easier to remember them 
if instead of merely hearing about them we can see them, too. 
God sometimes teaches people by object lessons. He gave a 
special one to the children of Israel in the time of Jeremiah. 

The Israelites were very slow to learn. God did many 
wonderful things for them. He delivered them out of the 
land of Egypt after He had showed His power by the ten 
plagues. He led them through the Red Sea as by dry land; 
He provided for them for forty years in the wilderness, even 
sending them bread from heaven day by day. At last He took 
them safely into the Promised Land, drove out their enemies 
before them, and divided this beautiful country among their 
tribes. But they forgot His works and all His goodness and 
turned aside after false gods. He sent His prophets to them 
with messages time after time, but they did not pay much 
attention to these and continued to be forgetful and disobe¬ 
dient. Then God had to punish them for their own good, so 
He sent Nebuchadnezzar against them and his army encamped 
before Jerusalem. 

The city was soon crowded with those who had come in 
from the country districts to take refuge from the invader. 
There was no safety outside the walls, so the people packed 
up their belongings and hastened to enter the gates. Fathers 
and mothers and children came flocking along the country 
roads toward the capital and among them was a company of 
people who seem to have carried their tents and pitched them, 
on their arrival, in an open piece of ground. The place must 
soon have looked like a gypsy encampment. 

No doubt the boys and girls of Jerusalem watched, with 
much interest as the tents went up and asked their parents 
who these people were. Then father or mother probably an¬ 
swered, “These are the Recha’bites, and they live mostly on 
the desert land to the south of us, but now they have come in 
to take refuge from Nebuchadnezzar. They don’t build houses 
but always live in tents.” 


IT IS WRITTEN 


19 


Doubtless the boys and girls enquired again, “Why do they 
do that?” and the answer was something like this: “The 
Rechabites are descended from a certain man named Jonadab 
the son of Rechab who lived more than three hundred years 
ago. He thought that life in the country was better and more 
wholesome than city life, so he commanded his children never 
to build houses or live in towns but always to dwell in tents 
and make their home in the open country. He also made 
them promise never to use strong drink or even to grow vines 
lest they might be tempted to make wine. Although he has 
been dead so many years they still obey his commandment 
and they have only come into Jerusalem for a little while. 
When the danger is past they will return to the country.” 

Now when God wanted to give an object lesson to His 
disobedient people He chose to use these Rechabites to teach 
them. He first called Jeremiah and gave him certain direc¬ 
tions which the prophet faithfully carried out. Jeremiah 
invited the Rechabites to meet him in the temple. The whole 
family of them assembled there and the meeting was held in 
one of the upper chambers. There were a good many of these 
rooms in the temple, for they ran along three of its four sides 
and there were three stories of them. They were used as 
storerooms and were also convenient for holding gatherings 
of one kind and another. 

The Rechabites arrived, led by the head of the family, 
Jaazaniah. They probably wondered what the prophet wanted 
with them, and no doubt they were surprised when they saw 
large pots or bowls full of wine. These vessels were some¬ 
thing like modern punch bowls, only much larger, and from 
them individual drinking cups were filled. Turning to the 
head of the family Jeremiah invited him and all of them to 
take some wine. Their reply was a very decided, “No.” 
They said, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of 
Rechab our father commanded us saying, ‘Ye shall drink no 

WINE, NEITHER YE NOR YOUR SONS FOR EVER, NEITHER SHALL YE 
BUILD HOUSE NOR SOW SEED, NOR PLANT VINEYARD, NOR HAVE ANY, 
BUT ALL OF YOUR DAYS YE SHALL LIVE IN TENTS, THAT YE MAY LIVE 
MANY DAYS IN THE LAND WHEREIN YE BE STRANGERS.’ ” 


Daniel 5:1-31. 



20 


IT IS WRITTEN” 


They said they had always faithfully obeyed the command¬ 
ment of their ancestor, they and their wives and their sons 
and their daughters, and they intended to continue so to do. 
Some people would have thought that since it was Jeremiah 
who set wine before them it would be quite right to drink it, 
for he was a prophet of God and a most good and holy man. 
Some today will take a glass of wine if they are urged by one 
whom they respect and admire. They think there can’t be 
much harm in taking a liittle if some truly good person offers 
it to them and says it is all right. But the Rechabites were 
fully persuaded in their own minds that it would be wrong 
to drink wine, even at the invitation of a prophet. So they 
refused and their words sound like the words of a temperance 
pledge. “We will drink no wine,” they said emphatically. 

Now Jeremiah had only offered the wine to the Rechabites 
to prove their faithfulness and obedience. God had told 
him to do this because the Israelites needed an object lesson. 
It seems that a large crowd was then gathered in the court 
outside the temple and Jeremiah left the chamber where the 
Rechabites had met and went outside and spoke to the Israel¬ 
ites. He told them how faithful the Rechabites had been 
and how they had kept their temperance pledge all these 
years because their ancestor had required it of them. But 
the people of Israel had not been faithful; they had been dis¬ 
obedient to God. He had sent His prophets to them to urge 
them to mend their ways and they would not even listen. 
Now God was going to punish them. They all knew what 
this meant, for the army of Nebuchadnezzar lay encamped 
about the city. 

There are tens of thousands of people today, men, women, 
and children, who are following the good example of the 
Rechabites. They have made the resolution, “We will drink 
no wine,” and have signed the pledge of total abstinence for 
life. This is a very wise thing to do. No one was ever sorry 
for having kept the pledge, but multitudes are sorry that 
they ever learned to use strong drink. 

The pledge is a sacred promise. We should always be 
careful when we make promises, and never make them unless 
we intend to keep them. Dwight Lyman Moody, the great 


IT IS WRITTEN 


21 


evangelist, when a boy went to work for a farmer and prom¬ 
ised to stay for a certain length of time. The farmer gave 
him nothing but corn meal and milk for breakfast, corn meal 
and milk for dinner and corn meal and milk for supper. This 
went on until the boy Dwight, had eaten nineteen meals all 
just alike. He, wanted to leave when he saw what his fare 
was to be, but his mother made him stay out his time because 
he had given his word. Mr. Moody said that all the rest of 
his life he was very chary about making promises without 
careful thought. Now the pledge is an especially serious 
promise and it ought never to be taken hastily or thought¬ 
lessly. “It is written”: When thou vowest a vow unto God 

DEFER NOT TO PAY IT. BETTER IS IT THAT THOU SHOULDST NOT VOW 
THAN THAT THOU SHOULDST VOW AND NOT PAY.* That means, it 
is better not to make a promise than to make it only to break 
it. But the pledge usually begins with the words, “Trusting 
in God’s help,” and if we really do that we shall not fail. 

The temperance pledge not only enables us to avoid a 
great danger but it is also a help to getting on in the world. 
Those who keep it find that, as a rule, they can save money. 
Once there was held in London a celebration in honor of 
those who had been total abstainers for fifty years. Many 
temperance veterans were there. One of them was an old 
gentleman who had held a high position in the British navy. 
A reporter asked him how old he was when he signed the 
pledge. “I was a boy of twelve,” he replied. “And what 
made you do that in those days when it was so unpopular?” 
the newspaper man enquired. “I signed,” he said, “because 
I wanted to do some good in the world and to help others. 
But I found I myself was the one who got the most good 
from that act; the pledge has been worth more than a fortune 
to me.” Very many old folks can give the same testimony, 
so the young folks will do a sensible and business-like thing 
if they too sign the pledge before they start in their life work. 

God rewarded the Rechabites for their faithfulness and 
some day He will richly reward all who have been His obed¬ 
ient children and have tried to do what they knew to be right. 


^Ecclesiastes 5 :4-5. 



22 


IT IS WRITTEN 


A BRAVE RESOLVE 

Daniel 1:1-21. 

The courts of eastern monarchs in ancient times were ex¬ 
ceedingly splendid. Their palaces were magnificent and 
were gorgeously furnished and the kings and courtiers lived 
in the greatest luxury. They were surrounded on every hand 
by slaves who waited to obey their slightest command. King 
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was very particular about his 
slaves. He did not want any ordinary persons to attend on 
him. He preferred captive princes and other young men of 
noble birth. These he generally obtained in war, for when 
he had defeated his enemies he picked out the finest young 
fellows among them and carried them home as his slaves. 

There were several things that he took into consideration 
when choosing them, besides high birth. He preferred bright, 
intelligent boys and youths, for he liked to have them thor¬ 
oughly trained in Babylonish learning. But specially he was 
particular about their looks. They had to be strong and well 
built and handsome besides, so that visitors to the court 
would admire them. Slaves were thought of simply as prop¬ 
erty, just like houses and pictures and furniture and flower 
gardens. Nebuchadnezzar wanted handsome ones, because the 
finer looking they were the more would people admire the 
splendor of his court and praise him as the great king of it all. 

The land over which Nebuchadnezzar ruled was called 
by several different names, Babylonia, Chaldea or Shinar. It 
was the rich and fertile plain watered by two great historic 
rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. Away off to the west 
lay another fertile land, that of Egypt, watered by another 
great river, the Nile. At the time of this story these two 
countries were at war and Nebuchadnezzar marched with his 
army all the long way from Babylon to Egypt and defeated 
his enemy in battle. 

Now this king of Egypt ruled also over the little land of 
Judah which for some time had acknowledged him as its over- 
lord and had paid him tribute in silver and gold. 

Nebuchadnezzar thought that while he was about it he 
might just as well subdue Judah too. But though he seemed 


IT IS WRITTEN” 


23 


to make this plan out of his own head it was really God’s 
plan. The Bible says, “Surely at the commandment of the 
Lord came this upon Judah.”* The people had been very 
wicked in several ways, and they had worshipped idols though 
they knew perfectly well there was only one true God. God 
had been good and gracious to them since they first became a 
nation, but they were ungrateful and God determined after 
repeated warnings to punish them. 

The army of Nebuchadnezzar was not long in conquering 
Jerusalem and the king took may captives home with him 
from the land of Judah. Some of them belonged to the royal 
family and others were sons of the nobles. Also he carried 
away some of the sacred vessels from the temple. He put 
these into the house of the false god Bel, to whom he had 
built a temple in Babylon. This Bel was the Sun god. 
Nebuchadnezzar was very proud of the magnificent temple 
he had erected and there have been handed down to us on 
earthen tablets the very words he wrote about it. 

“I set up long beams to support it,” he said, “I built up 
its gates; I stored inside silver and gold and precious stones 
whose names were almost unknown, and placed there the 
treasure house of my kingdom.” Eastern kings in those days 
were fabulously rich because they were despots and took from 
their subjects whatever they wanted. The people stood in 
great awe and fear of them, for to offend one of these tyrants 
almost certainly meant death. If they were displeased with 
a subject or a slave they thought nothing of ordering his head 
to be cut off on the spot. 

Among the captives who were carried from Jerusalem to 
Babylon were four boys named Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael 
and Azariah. Their handsome faces and intelligent speech 
caused them to be singled out for the king’s service and they 
were sent with a number of others to the palace. There they 
learned that they were to go through a three years’ course of 
study to prepare them for their future work. It was not an 
easy course by any means. They were to study the learning 
and tongue of the Chaldeans. Although Babylonia as a whole 
was sometimes called Chaldea and the people were called 


*2 Kings 24:3. 



24 


IT IS WRITTEN 


Chaldeans, the word is specially used of the wise men or 
magicians. It seems likely that these learned men and the 
king and his courtiers spoke a language different from the 
one used by the people generally. It was this court language 
that the four boys had to master. 

The Chaldeans paid a great deal of attention to astronomy 
and indeed made some very important discoveries in that 
line. The boys were required to study this science and a kin¬ 
dred subject called astrology by means of which the wise men 
professed to foretell events by the stars. Hieroglyphics or 
picture writing was another of their lessons. Perhaps you 
have been in a museum and seen some of the strange pictures 
which those ancient people used instead of writing. Alto¬ 
gether the four boys had plenty of work to fill their days. 

There was placed over them the Ash-penaz, or Master of 
the Household. Beneath him in rank was another called 
Melzar, who was a sort of steward and looked after the boys' 
table. It was not long before the Master became very much 
attached to Daniel and felt for this young stranger a “tender 
love.” It is not hard to guess the reason for this. Daniel 
was obedient and hard working as well as being a thoroughly 
gentlemanly boy. His friends seem to have been like him, 
so it is no wonder that they rapidly gained favor with the 
Master. 

They were not badly treated, for they were being prepared 
for honorable positions at the court. The king gave directions 
that they should be fed on the very daintiest food, such as was 
served at his own table, and altogether they were to live more 
like princes than like slaves. If only they could forget their 
home and dear ones and the God they had loved and served 
and could settle down in this heathen land, they might after 
all be pretty well off. 

In order to try to make them forget Nebuchadnezzar 
changed their names. Daniel means “God is my judge,” but 
Daniel was given the new name of Belteshazzar, or “the 
prince of Bel.” He was henceforth to be connected with the 
false god who was supposed to be the special deity of Babylon. 
Azariah means “the help of the Lord.” This beautiful name 
was taken away from the lad and henceforth he was to be 


IT IS WRITTEN 


25 


called A'bed-nego or “the servant of Nego,” another false 
god. The other two boys also received new names and these 
too, had to do with idol worship. But though they went by 
new names and lived in a strange new land these four boys 
never forgot the old home and the worship of the one true 
God. 

There were many difficulties in their life in Babylon, but 
one thing troubled them particularly. The law of Moses, 
which they had learned faithfully to obey, forbade them to 
eat certain kinds of food. Some animals were considered un¬ 
clean and were not to be eaten at all; and no flesh whatever 
was to be eaten with the blood in it. If they ate the meat 
from the king’s table they would constantly be disobeying 
the law of Moses, which was the law of God. Nor was this 
all. The food eaten in the palace of the heathen king was 
first offered in sacrifice to idols. We are told by one historian 
that wine was mixed in a golden cup and consecrated to the 
Sun god, and that the king drank a little of it and then placed 
a chaplet of cypress on his head, while music was played and 
hymns were sung to that false deity. Aftet this ceremony 
was over the food was passed around to the members of the 
royal household. 

Daniel no doubt felt that to eat it under these circum¬ 
stances would be the same thing as taking part in idolatry. 
He thought about the matter carefully and talked it over with 
his friends. Well they knew that it was as much as their 
lives were worth to transgress the command of Nebuchad¬ 
nezzar. They would probably be put to death the very same 
day. However, there was just one thing they could not do, 
whatever happened. They could not disobey God. So 
Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile him¬ 
self WITH THE PORTION OF THE KING’S MEAT NOR WITH THE WINE 

which he drank, and the other three joined with him in mak¬ 
ing this brave resolve. 

The secret of Daniel’s greatness and of all his success in 
life is to be found in that one word “purposed.” People never 
happen to grow into noble characters. They have definitely 
to choose to do right and then stick to it in spite of fate. If 
you wish to become a fine musician you must “purpose” to 


26 


“IT IS WRITTEN 


practise faithfully however tedious it may be, and then hold 
to the purpose when you would much rather be doing - some¬ 
thing else. If you want to graduate from school with honors 
you must “purpose” that you will thoroughly master every 
lesson as it comes, no matter how hard or tiresome it may 
be. With grown-up folks it is the same. The artist who 
becomes famous, the business man who makes a fortune, the 
scientist who gives the world some great discovery, all have 
a strong purpose constantly before their minds. 

Daniel’s purpose was the noblest that anyone could have. 
He determined to obey God at any cost, though he lived 
among the heathen and was nothing but a slave. Perhaps 
it was a hard struggle when he thought of the cruel death 
that might await him but once he had fully made up his mind 
he was not the 'boy to turn back. 

He spoke to the Master of the Household about the matter 
and explained why he could not eat the king’s meat or drink 
his wine. He respectfully asked if he and his friends might 
be allowed to eat pulse. This means peas and beans and 
perhaps various other vegetables and also cereals. Instead 
of strong wine he desired, permission to drink pure cold water. 
The good man was puzzled and distressed. He felt the boys 
were sure to get into trouble, for they would not thrive so 
well as those who lived on meat and wine, and would not look 
so handsome as others when the time came to appear before 
the king. Also he was afraid for himself. If the king - were 
angry, the Ash-penaz said, he would think nothing of cutting 
off his head for having allowed the boys to break the rules. 

This made it more difficult than ever, for Daniel certainly 
did not want to endanger his friend, however brave he might 
be for himself. But whatever happened, he must obey his 
God. So he begged the Master to try his plan for ten days 
at least and see how it worked. Ash-penaz turned the four 
over to Melzar, who prepared their food, and they were 
allowed to eat pulse and drink waiter just as they had asked 
to do. At the end of the ten days they were examined and 
it was found they were better looking than the other young 
fellows who had eaten from the king’s table. So they were 


“IT IS WRITTEN 


27 


permitted ito keep on in the same way and observe the law 
of their God as they had done at home. 

There is nothing surprising in the fact that they were 
healthier than the others and had better complexions. Strong 
drink is not nourishing or good for the body in any way at 
all. lit contains nothing whatever that will build up muscle 
and nerve and make rich red blood. On the contrary, the 
poison alcohol makes the muscle flabby and benumbs the 
nerves and injures the blood in several different ways. Those 
who leave it alone and drink pure water are much more likely 
to be healthy and strong than the people who use it even in 
the most moderate quantities. Alcohol specially injures the 
brain and (those who do mental work should never touch it. 

When the three years’ course was over the Jewish boys 
had to take their examinations. As Daniel and his friends 
had studied hard and constantly sought God’s blessing and 
had never poisoned their brains with alcohol, they did well. 
The others bad eaten heavily from day to day and used the 
alcoholic drink that makes it difficult for the brain to work. 
The result was this: “Among them all was found none like 
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, and in all matters 
of wisdom and understanding that the king enquired if them 
he found them ten times better than all the magicians and 
astrologers that were in all his realm.” 

From this time forth Daniel rose higher and higher until 
he was the greatest man in the country after the king him¬ 
self. At last through his influence at court he was able to 
prepare the way for his people to return from exile to their 
own land. All this was because, as a mere boy in his teens, 
he had “purposed in his heart” to do right at any cost. Would 
it not be a fine thing if every American boy and girl would 
“purpose” to leave strong drink alone and to obey God 
throughout life? 

“Dare to be a Daniel, 

Dare to stand alone; 

Dare to have a purpose firm 
And dare to make it known.” 


28 


“IT IS WRITTEN 


THREE MIGHTY MEN 

I Chronicles 11:10-25. 

If you like stories of hair-breadth adventures and narrow 
escapes you should read the history of David in the books 
of Samuel and Chronicles. Of course you know all about his 
fights with the lion and the bear and the giant Goliath, but he 
had other thrilling experiences besides these. You may read 
how King Saul in a fit of madness threw his spear ait David 
while he was playing the harp before him and how David 
had to flee for his life. Also how his wife saved him by 
lowering him from a window and putting an image in the bed 
to deceive his enemies. Read, too, all about David’s friend¬ 
ship with Jonathan, the son of Saul, and how they made a 
covenant together and were true to each other to the last. 

Besides this best and dearest friend David had many others 
who gathered round him in the wild desert country where 
he was obliged to hide, and who later helped to make him 
king. They formed a valiant band of heroes and were known 
as David’s mighty men. There was Eleazar for one. He saw 
his countrymen fleeing, beaten and terrified, before the Phil¬ 
istines. Instead of catching the panic and running with the 
rest he made a stand with a few others in a little patch or 
parcel of ground full of barley “and delivered it and slew the 
Philistines and the Lord saved them by a great deliverance.” 

Then there was Benaiah who slew two lion-like men of 
Moab; also he went down and slew a lion in a pit on a snowy 
day, which was a great feat. If he had not finished the lion, 
the lion would surely have finished him, for there was no 
getting away from the beast when once he was in the bottom 
of the pit. 

This same warrior killed an Egyptian giant who had a 
spear like a weaver’s beam. He went down to him with a 
staff and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand and 
slew him with his own spear. Though in these days we have 
learned to hate war and love peace we can’t help feeling that 
David had some heroes in his little army of whom he could 
be justly proud. 


“IT IS WRITTEN 


29 


Perhaps the greatest exploit of his mighty men was their 
dash to the well of Bethlehem. You will remember that 
Bethlehem was David’s old home. It was there that he was 
born and spent all his boyhood days. There he used to keep 
his father’s sheep and there it was that Samuel found him 
and anointed him king. In after years, when David was wan¬ 
dering in the mountains and hiding in the caves and fighting 
desperate battles, he used to look back with longing to the 
old days in Bethlehem, so happy and so peaceful. He thought 
of the hillsides where he had so often led his flocks and the 
well where he had had many a cooling draught and had drawn 
water for his sheep besides. 

The wells in Palestine were very carefully made, for they 
were intended to last for all time. Usually they were dug in 
the solid limestone rock and there was a low curb around the 
top to keep the dirt from getting in. A large stone was often 
laid over the opening. Sometimes there were steps leading 
down into the well. There was a rope for hauling up the 
leathern bucket or the earthen jar and the water coming from 
deep down in the ground was deliciously cool and refreshing. 
One or two troughs were placed near for watering the cattle, 
sometimes made of wood and sometimes hollowed out of 
stone. 

It always seemed to David that there was no water quite 
so good as the water from the well of Bethlehem. One of 
our own American poets felt the same way as David when he 
said, “How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood, 
when fond recollection presents them to view,” and went on 
to describe “the old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, the 
moss-covered bucket that hung in the well.” 

Once David and his mighty men were in a stronghold 
known as the Cave of Adullam, which seems to have been on 
a high hill. A few miles from them the army of the Phil¬ 
istines lay encamped and behind their lines was the little 
town of Bethlehem, so dear to David’s heart. One day, tired 
and thirsty, he remembered the old well over yonder and 
thought how good a draught of its cool water would taste 
to him at that moment. He exclaimed aloud, “Oh that one 


30 


“IT IS WRITTEN” 


would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, 
that is ’by the gate.” 

In eastern lands people have such a delicate sense of taste 
that they can tell the water of one well from that of another. 
Sometimes there are several fountains in a town and when 
the water carrier comes around one of his customers will 
want water from this fountain and another will want it from 
that. Our western tongues cannot distinguish such differences, 
but we may be sure that when David longed for the -water of 
the well of Bethlehem it was because he remembered its taste. 

He certainly had not the slightest idea of anyone’s 
attempting to get it. It was just a wish. We often wish for 
things that it is quite impossible to have. But some of his 
mighty men heard his words. “Let us go and get it for him,” 
they said to one another. These heroes loved David devot¬ 
edly, for he was the greatest hero of them all and such a 
grand leader. There was nothing in the world they would 
not have done for him so they were glad even to risk their 
lives that he might have what he longed for. Off they started, 
three of them together. We do not know whether it was 
day or night, but either way it was fearfully risky, for they 
had to pass through the camp of the enemy and at every step 
their lives were in danger. At last, however, the three broke 
through and came to Bethlehem and the well beside the gate. 
You may imagine how hurriedly they drew that water. Then 
they started back and all the deadly danger had to be en¬ 
countered again, only this time every step took them nearer 
to camp. At last, wonderful to tell, they reached their hill 
in safety, hastened to the cave, and in triumph presented to 
David the water he had so much wanted. 

Now here comes the strange part of the story, and I fear 
you will be disappointed in it and will feel that the three 
mighty men must have been disappointed, too. David would 
not drink of it after all, but poured it ouit to the Lord as an 
offering. The fact is, he could not bring himself to drink it 
when he thought of the awful risk that his brave men had 
run just for refreshment for him. He said, My God forbid it me, 

THAT I SHOULD DO THIS THING. SHALL I DRINK THE BLOOD OF THESE 
MEN THAT HAVE PUT THEIR LIVES IN JEOPARDY? FOR WITH THE 


“IT IS WRITTEN 


31 


jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would 
not drink it. 

Jeopardy means danger. David felt that his men had 
risked their lives to geit that drink and if they had been killed 
it would have been, in a way, his fault. We do not know 
whether those three mighty men had wives and children or 
not. If they had, David surely must have been shocked to 
think how nearly they were all made widows and orphans 
that he might have a drink. The drink was just as good as 
it could be, pure refreshing water, and David wanted it badly 
enough, but he could not bear to think of the terrible price 
that was so nearly paid for it, even “the blood of men.” When 
he poured it out as an offering to the Lord he doubtless 
thanked Him that He had preserved the lives of his heroes 
and brought them safely back. 

We have the same feeling about strong drink today that 
David had about that water. It costs too much, not in dollars 
and cents, but in human life, and for that reason, if for no 
other, we could not think of using it. Those brave men were 
not killed after all, and their wives and children were not 
made widows and orphans. But strong drink does cause men 
to be killed every day, and women to be made widows and 
children fatherless. Not every day only but every hour and 
even more often than that. 

Alcohol is always harmful, even in small quantities. But 
just suppose for a moment that a little would not hurt you. 
Suppose a person could drink a glass of beer with his meals, 
or a little wine at dinner, and never be any the worse. Would 
it be all right to take it then, do you think? Some would 
say, “Yes, I will drink it, because I like it, and it does not 
seem to hurt me.” But men like David will always say, “I 
cannot touch it, for it has destroyed too many people, body 
and soul. I should be ashamed to use, just for my own plea¬ 
sure, what is causing the death of so many of my fellows. 
God forbid that I should do this thing.” 

“It is written”: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.* 
If we love our neighbour we shall hate strong drink and never 
let it pass our lips. 


♦Leviticus 19:18. 


32 


IT IS WRITTEN” 


RUNNING THE RACE 

I Corinthians 9:24-21. 

In the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor there once lived a boy 
whose name was Saul. His father was a Jew and a very strict 
one, belonging to the sect of the Pharisees. Saul was a clever 
boy, rather hot-tempered but very affectionate, and no doubt 
he loved his father and mother and sister very dearly. He 
most likely went to a little school connected with the Syna¬ 
gogue, where he learned to read and write, seated on the 
ground beside his teacher. 

When he took walks in the cool o,f the evening he saw the 
mountain range of Taurus with its pointed peaks which caught 
the last rays of the setting sun. When the river came rush¬ 
ing down, swollen with the melting snows, no doubt he loved 
to watch the waterfalls breaking over the rocks. Perhaps he 
liked still better to wander about the wharves where the boats 
landed and there were so many interesting things to see, and 
where men speaking many different languages and clad in 
many strange costumes were always passing to and fro. 

When he was about twelve years old his parents sent him 
to Jerusalem to a school conducted by a learned doctor of the 
law. Saul distinguished himself greatly in his studies and 
not only learned most thoroughly the letter of the law, but 
took equal pains to obey it. His education was not complete, 
however, until he had mastered a trade. It was the custom 
that all boys should learn one so as to be able to support 
themselves whatever might happen. Saul learned to make 
tents, and this was a good business for there was a large de¬ 
mand for them. The tents were made of haircloth, the black 
hair being supplied by the goats raised in the province of 
Cilicia where Tarsus is situated. Such tents may still be 
seen today dotted over the plains in harvest time. 

Because of his earnestness and ability Saul became a very 
prominent man and he seems to have been a member of the 
chief court called the Sanhedrin. It consisted of priests and 
elders and scribes, all supposed to be learned men, and it was 
a great honor to belong to it. 


IT IS WRITTEN 


33 


Not very long before this time Jesus had been crucified 
and his disciples were now telling the wonderful story of his 
resurrection and explaining that he was the Son of God, and 
had given his life to save mankind. Now the Sanhedrin did 
nolt believe this doctrine and they sent the Christians to prison 
for preaching it. They even had them pursued to distant 
cities and brought back to Jerusalem for punishment. Saul 
was sent all the way to Damascus to hunt up some of them. 

This is a beautiful city lying in the midst of the desert. 
Its gardens and shrubberies are kept .fresh and fertile by a 
river which after a short course loses itself in a lake. With 
its white buildings among their green foliage, its fruits and 
flowers growing in great profusion, and its little rivulets 
running in all directions, Damascus is an earthly paradise. 

Saul was on his way there with a number of companions 
and had almost reached the city when a marvellous (thing 
happened. Just about noon a great light shone round about 
him, more dazzling by far than that of the midday sun. All 
the party were much afraid and fell to the ground and then 
Saul distinctly heard a voice speaking to him from heaven 
and saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecuteslt thou me?” “Who 
art thou, Lord?” he asked trembling and the answer was, “I 
am Jesus, whom thou perseeutest.” Then the Lord told Saul 
that he had appeared to him in order to make him his servant 
and his witness among the heathen. So in that brief moment 
Saul the persecutor was completely changed. At once he 
knew that Jesus, who spoke .from heaven, was the Son of 
God, and he was ready to go wherever he might send him 
and do whatever he might tell him. “Lord, what wilt thou 
have me to do?”* he cried, and from that time he obeyed his 
divine master most faithfully and became the first great 
missionary. Not long afterwards his name was changed to 
Paul. 

For about twenty years Paul traveled and preached the 
gospel in Asia and Europe. He generally went on foot with 
a companion or two, and when they made a lengthy stay in 
any city he worked at his trade as a tentmaker to pay ex¬ 
penses. He suffered many things, but he was glad to bear 


Acts 9:1-6. 



34 


IT IS WRITTEN” 


them for Jesus’ sake. Once he was stoned in the streets 
and then dragged through the gates and thrown outside the 
wall for dead. Another time, because he healed a poor 
demoniac girl, Paul and his friend Silas were cruelly scourged 
and put in prison and their feet were made fast in the stocks. 
Prisons in those old days were terrible places, dark, damp 
dungeons, dirty and unhealthy. But even there, though the 
stocks hurt their feet, Paul and Silas sang praises to God. 

Another time a mob tried to kill Paul and he was only res¬ 
cued by a company of Roman soldiers. On yet another oc¬ 
casion forty men entered into a compact to murder him and 
swore that they would neither eat nor drink till they had ac¬ 
complished their purpose. But news of this plot reached Paul’s 
nephew and the apostle was sent away under a guard, of 
soldiers in the night. Many other thrilling adventures and 
narrow escapes he had, including r\o less than three ship¬ 
wrecks. Traveling was difficult and dangerous in those days, 
whether by land or sea. On his second missionary journey 
Paul crossed the Taurus mountains by the Cilician Galtes, 
“one of the most frightful mountain passes in the world.’’ 
Besides the ordinary perils of rough mountain roads he was 
sometimes in great danger from robbers. Indeed, the things 
that he suffered would make a long list. One day a party of 
friends came down to the seashore to bid him goodbye. He 
spoke to them of the trials he was likely to meet and said, 
“None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear 
unto myself.” 

In small matters as in great Paul was always self-sacrific¬ 
ing. All he thought of or cared about was to serve Christ and 
help others. Once there came up in the church a certain 
puzzling question. Some people were saying it was wrong 
to eat certain meats and others said it was not wrong. Paul 
said, whether it was actually wrong or not he would not 
think of doing it if it made it harder for anyone else to live 
rightly. He wrote, It is good neither to eat flesh nor drink 

WINE, NOR ANYTHING WHEREBY THY BROTHER STUMBLETH OR . 

is made weak* Certainly if he had lived today he would have 
been a prohibitionist because strong drink causes more people 


Romans 14:21. 



IT IS WRITTEN” 


35 


to be weak in body and mind and character than any cither 
thing. 

It is hard to practice self-denial and no doubt Paul found 
it so now and then. But he liked to think of himself as an 
athlete running for a prize. Athletes don’t mind training even 
when it is very strenuous. Among the Greeks in Paul’s time 
a great deal of attention was paid to sports. The chief games 
were the Olympic and the Isthmian. Competitors for these 
games were obliged to train very thoroughly and for a long 
while, sometimes for almost a year. The Greek philosopher 
Epictetus wrote: “Would you be a victor in the Olympic 
games? So, in good truth, would I, for it is a glorious thing, 
but pray consider what must go before, and so proceed to the 
attempt. You must then live by rule, eat what will be dis¬ 
agreeable, refrain from delicacies. You must oblige your¬ 
self to constant exercises at the appointed hour, in heat and 
cold; you must abstain from wine and liquors; in a word, you 
must be as submissive to all the directions of your master 
as to those of a physician.” 

One of the most popular of the Olympic games was the foot 
race. The course was called the stadium. A stadium literally 
means a measure of six hundred feet and the race track had 
this name because that was its length. At one end was a 
straight wall in which were the entrances, while the other 
end was closed in. Tiers of seats rose on each side and on 
grand occasions these were filled by a great throng of spec¬ 
tators.* At the goal sat the judge with the prize in his hand. 
This was a crown of leaves. In the Olympic games a wreath 
of olive leaves was given, and in the Isthmian one of pine 
or ivy. The runner started from a square pillar at the en¬ 
trance end of the stadium, and before they took their places 
they removed all unnecessary clothing that they might not 
be impeded in the least degree. 

Paul often thought of these games and how willingly the 
contestants practiced self-denial in order to win. He said, 
Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all 
things. It seemed to him that the Christian life is like a glori¬ 
ous race and we ought not to let anything handicap us in it. 


Hebrews 12:1-2. 



36 


IT IS WRITTEN 


Self-indulgence will hinder a Christian just as it hinders an 
athlete. Paul was determined that no bad habit should spoil 
him for the race, and he wrote, I keep under my body and 

BRING IT INTO SUBJECTION.* ... I PRESS TOWARD THE MARK 

for the prize.** The Olympic runners practiced temperance 
and went in for hard training just to win a chaplet of leaves. 
“They do it to obtain a corruptible crown,” remarked Paul, 
“but we an incorruptible.” The reward that the Lord Jesus 
will some day give to his faithful servants will not fade like 
the wreath of olive leaves, but will last for ever and ever. 
So it is well worth while to “lay aside every weight,” that is, 
every hurtful thing that would hamper us, and to run with 
patience the race that is set before us. 

The Bible does not tell us anything about the close of 
Paul’s life, but elsewhere we read that he was beheaded in 
Rome by order of the cruel Nero, in whose reign so many 
Christians died the martyr’s death. Paul was quite ready to 
go, for he felt he had done his work and run his race. “I have 
finished my course,” he wrote to his young friend Timothy, 
“henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous¬ 
ness.*** Would it not be a grand thing to become the sort 
of athlete that Paul was? Would it not be worth any amount 
of self-denial if at last we might hear Christ say, “Well done?” 

*1 Corinthians 9:27. 

**Philippians 3:14. 

***II Timothy 4:7. 



IT IS WRITTEN 


37 


THE BOASTFUL KING 

Kings k0:1-21 . 

Ben-hadad, king of Syria, was a proud and boastful man and 
he marched against the kingdom of Israel quite positive that 
he could conquer it. Along with him went thirty-two other 
kings, rulers of the different provinces of Syria, who looked 
up to Ben-hadad as their superior. Altogether they had a hun¬ 
dred and twenty-seven thousand men, some mounted on 
horses and others riding in chariots. No wonder that the 
Israelites were in despair when they saw this great multitude 
advancing against them. Ahab, the king, was thoroughly 
frightened and as it seemed hopeless to attempt to meet such 
an army in the field, he shut himself up with his troops in the 
capital city, Samaria. 

Ben-hadad sent a herald to demand a hearing for his am¬ 
bassadors. When these came before the king they gave a most 
insulting message saying that their master laid claim to every¬ 
thing Ahab possessed, including his silver and gold, his wives 
and his children. No king would agree to such a demand as 
this unless he had lost hope altogether and knew he was at 
the conqueror’s mercy. This was how Ahab felt and so he 
said, “My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine 
and all that I have.” 

When Ben-hadad received this reply he threatened Ahab 
still farther. He said that he would the very next day send 
some of his men to Ahab and they would search his house 
and the houses of his servants, and whatever they found that 
the king delighted in they would take it away from him. 
This was really so insolent that it stirred up even the weak 
and wretched Ahab to resist. He called a council of the chief 
men of his realm and asked their advice. 

This meeting was held in the open air and many of the 
people were there in addition to their leaders. With one ac¬ 
cord they advised the king to hold out against his proud foe, 
saying, “Hearken not unto him, nor consent.” So this time 
Ahab returned a refusal to Ben-hadad’s impudent demands. 

The Syrian monarch was very sure that he could easily 
conquer Samaria, so he replied that he would soon destroy 


38 


IT IS WRITTEN” 


the city, but Ahab in reply told the messengers to remind 
Ben-hadad of the proverb, “Let not him that girdeth on his 
armor boast himself as he that putteth it of?,” meaning it 
was foolish to be sure of victory before the battle began. 

When the ambassadors returned they found Ben-hadad giv¬ 
ing a banquet to his thirty-two allies. He was so very cer¬ 
tain of success that he was celebrating it beforehand by drink¬ 
ing wine instead of preparing for the battle and the wine had 
affected his brain and benumbed his thinking powers so that 
he was not capable of reasoning and he did not heed the 
warning but immediately ordered his servants to place the 
engines ready to begin the siege.* 

The engines of war in those ancient times included batter¬ 
ing rams and catapults, with scaling ladders for mounting 
the walls of the besieged city. We have sculptures dating 
from these bygone ages showing how a siege was conducted. 
The chief engine was the battering ram, a heavy beam with 
an iron head to it something like the head of a ram. This 
great beam was swung to and fro against the wall until a 
break was made in it. 

When Ben-hadad said, “Place the engines,” great, no 
doubt, were the fears and dread that Ahab and his people felt 
for they knew what a cruel fate awaited the conquered.. 

At this gloomy moment a prophet of God spoke up and 
brought hope and cheer to the hearts of all. “Thus saith the 
Lord, hast thou seen all this great multitude? Behold I will 
deliver it into thine hand this day, and thou shalt know that 
I am the Lord.” Ahab, beginning to see a ray of hope, 
asked of the prophet by whom they were to be delivered. “By 
the young men of the princes of the provinces,” was the 
answer. These were the servants of those Israelite chiefs 
who had fled from the country districts into the capital when 
the Syrian army appeared. There were only two hundred and 
thirty-two of them and, being young, they were not experi¬ 
enced in war. But God can do great things through young 
and even weak and ignorant people, if they put their trust 
in Him. He is just as ready to use young Americans today 
as He was to use young Israelites in that ancient time. 


*Verse 12, margin. 


IT IS WRITTEN 


39 


At noon this little company started out. Ben-had ad was 

DRINKING HIMSELF DRUNK IN HIS PAVILIONS, HE AND THE THIRTY 

and two kings that helped him, and therefore was paying no 
attention to the movements of the enemy. When the young 
men advanced, some of Ben-hadad’s servants saw them 
and told the king, “There are men come out of Samaria.” The 
boastful monarch merely ordered his soldiers to take them 
alive, whether they had come to fight or to sue for peace. He 
had, no idea there would be any difficulty about that for one 
effect of strong drink is to paralyze the judgment and thus 
make the user rash and careless. 

The two hundred and thirty-two young men marched on 
against the Syrians, brave and fearless because they were 
acting in obedience to God’s command. The army of Samaria 
followed them, only about seven thousand strong against the 
one hundred and twenty-seven thousand of the Syrians. But 
since their leaders were under the influence of drink the Syrian 
army was in hopeless confusion. Clear-headed and strong, the 
young Israelites attacked them and utterly routed them. The 
Syrians fled, leaving many of their possessions behind, even 
some of their horses. The Israelites seized these and pursued 
their enemies, killing a great number. As for Ben-hadad the 
boaster, he was glad enough to run away, and lucky to have a 
horse to carry him. Perhaps when he reached a place of safety 
and could sit down and think, he wished that instead of mud¬ 
dling his brain with wine, he had kept it clear and given 
attention to his army. We may be sure that to the day of his 
death he never forgot Ahab’s proverb, “Let not him that 
girdeth on his armor boast himself as he that putteth it off.” 

We have seen in other lessons that everyone should abstain 
from drink for his own sake. Ben-hadad reminds us that all 
kings and other rulers, all generals and captains and leaders 
of the people, should abstain for this other reason—because 
one man’s drinking may bring disaster and defeat on a whole 
nation. “It is written”: They have erred through wine, and 

THROUGH STRONG DRINK ARE OUT OF THE WAY; THEY ERR IN VISION, 
THEY STUMBLE IN JUDGMENT.* 


Isaiah 28:7. 



40 


IT IS WRITTEN 


HOW THE GREAT CITY FELL 

Daniel 5:1-31. 

Babylon was built so long ago that no one knows just when 
it was begun. In ancient times people wrote on bricks and 
many of these have been found and their inscriptions trans¬ 
lated in our day. One of them, written nearly four thousand 
years before Christ, makes mention of the city of Babylon. 
It was built on the river Euphrates in Asia. You may find 
this river mentioned in the very beginning of the Bible. 

One of the most famous kings of antiquity was Nebuchad¬ 
nezzar. He ruled over a large country and Babylon was his 
capital. He determined to make it the most beautiful city in the 
world, and also so strong that no enemy would ever be able to 
prevail against it. 

The city was built in the shape of a square, with the Eu¬ 
phrates running through the middle of it. A stone bridge 
spanned the broad river, and at each end there was a royal 
palace. On wet and windy days people could go from one 
palace to the other by a tunnel instead of using the bridge. 

The walls of the city were considered one of the seven won¬ 
ders of the world. There was an inner wall and an outer one. 
Outside the second there was a broad and deep moat or ditch. 
When this moat was made the clay that was dug out was 
used to make bricks to build the wall. There were two hun¬ 
dred and fifty towers around the walls, and between the inner 
and outer ones there was room for a four-horse chariot to 
turn round. The walls were so high that the prophet Jeremiah 
speaks of them as “mounting up to heaven.” He also men¬ 
tions their high gates. There were a hundred of these gates, 
all made of bronze and very handsome. On the inside the 
walls were lined with tiles decorated with hunting scenes. 

Nebuchadnezzar built himself one specially remarkable 
palace. The bricks may still be seen. They are very neatly 
moulded and stamped and the cement that holds them together 
is as good as any that we can make today. Nebuchadnezzar 
had so many men to work for him that he built this palace in 


“IT IS WRITTEN 


41 


almost no time. A record has been found in which he says, 
“In fifteen days I completed the splendid work.” 

But far more wonderful than the palace were the Hanging 
Gardens. These, like the walls of Babylon were counted 
among the wonders of the world. The story goes that Neb¬ 
uchadnezzar built them for his queen. She came from a land 
of mountains and forests, cool breezes and green groves. 
Babylon was so hot and flat it made her homesick, so Neb¬ 
uchadnezzar had an artificial hill made for her pleasure. 

High arches were built and on top of these terraces were 
made with earth spread upon them, and trees and shrubs and 
flowers planted there. Terrace rose above terrace, and on 
top of all Nebuchadnezzar built a house for his queen. It 
was very beautiful and about as high as the lofty walls of 
Babylon, so that the lady had not only cooler and fresher 
air but a wide view besides. The king also had a pump house 
erected on the topmost terrace, to which water from the river 
and canals could be brought up for use in the queen’s house 
and gardens. 

Altogether Babylon was a wonderful city, so strong that it 
did not look as if any enemy could conquer it, and so beau¬ 
tiful that it was the pride of the king’s heart. 

But it fell and great was the fall of it. The story of its con¬ 
quest is told by the Greek writer, Xenophon. You may have 
heard of Cyrus, the Persian boy who refused to touch his 
grandfather’s wine. This Cyrus became a great conqueror 
and it was he who took Babylon. 

The historian says he ranged his whole army round the city 
and then rode round it himself with some of his friends and 
advisers. After he had taken a good look at everything he 
made up his mind that the walls were too high and strong to 
be broken down, and that in order to capture the place he 
must try some other method. 

Gathering together his principal officers he held a consulta¬ 
tion with them. One thought they might perhaps get into the 
city by way of the river. But another said, “The city is de¬ 
fended by the river even better than by its walls.’’ 


42 


“IT IS WRITTEN 


When they had had their say Cyrus decided the matter, for 
a plan was then growing in his mind. “Let us dig a trench/* 
he said, “just as broad and deep as we can.” This was soon 
done, for he had thousands on thousands of soldiers. Then 
Cyrus built towers here and there, laying their foundations 
with strong trunks of palm trees. He pretended he was going 
to blockade the city. The garrison inside laughed at this, for 
they had provisions enough to last them for years. Babylon 
was so large that there were within its walls great tracts of 
grass land on which cattle could be kept in time of war. So 
when the people saw the army preparing to besiege them they 
did not care but only laughed. 

At this time Nebuchadnezzar was dead and Belshazzar was 
reigning in his place. The Bible says, Belshazzar the king 

MADE A GREAT FEAST TO A THOUSAND OF HIS LORDS AND DRANK WINE 

before the thousand. When his brain was poisoned by al¬ 
cohol he did a very wicked thing. He sent for the gold and 
silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the tem¬ 
ple in Jerusalem, things that were holy to the Lord, and only 
used in His service. They were brought to the palace and 
Belshazzar and his princes and wives and friends drank wine 
from them, the while they praised their false gods, idols of 
gold and silver, of wood and o,f stone. 

And then a strange and awful thing happened. On the wall 
of the palace beside the candlestick there appeared the fingers 
of a man’s hand, writing mysterious words. The king saw it 
and was terrified; his face changed color and he trembled so 
that his knees knocked together. He cried aloud to his serv¬ 
ants to fetch the astrologers and magicians that they might 
explain the dreadful mystery. When they came into the ban¬ 
quet hall Belshazzar said to them that whoever could read the 
writing and interpret the meaning should be clothed in scarlet 
and have a chain of gold about his neck and should be made 
the third ruler in the kingdom. But though all the wise men 
had come into the palace, and though they would have given 
much to be able to explain the writing, not one of them could 
read a word of it. Then the king was still more distressed and 
knew not what to do. 


IT IS WRITTEN” 


43 


At this moment the queen entered and advised Belshazzar 
to send for Daniel, saying- he would be sure to know the in¬ 
terpretation. So Daniel was sent for and the King renewed 
his offer of reward. The prophet told him to keep his gifts 
for himself, but said he would make known the meaning of 
the writing. The fingers of the hand were sent by God be¬ 
cause Belshazzar had not humbled himself before the Lord 
but had been proud and wicked. Because the vessels of God’s 
holy temple had been brought into the palace and the king and 
his wives and friends had drunk wine from them and had 
praised the gods of wood and stone and had not honored the 
one true God, this terrible warning had been sent. Daniel 
said the mysterious words were Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, 
and they meant that God had made an end of Belshazzar’s 
kingdom and had given it to the Medes and Persians. 

Now the leader of the Medes and Persians was Cyrus who 
later became king. Let us turn back to Xenophon and see 
the historian’s exact words as they have been translated by 
one of our Greek scholars: 

“The trenches were now dug, and Cyrus when he heard that 
there was a festival in Babylon in which all the Babylonians 
drank and reveled the whole night, took a number of men with 
him, and as soon as it was dark opened the trenches on the 
side toward the river. When this was done the water ran off 
in the night into the trenches and the bed of the river through 
the city allowed the men to walk along it. When the river 
was thus prepared Cyrus gave orders to the Persian captains 
of thousands of infantry and cavalry to attend him, each with 
his thousand drawn up two abreast. They accordingly came, 
and he, causing those that attended his person, both foot and 
horse, to go down into the dry channel of the river, ordered 
them to try whether the bed of the river was passable. When 
they reported that it was, he called together the officers and 
spoke to them as follows: The river, my friends, has yielded 
us a passage into the city, and let us boldly enter, fearing 
nothing within, but considering that these people, on whom 
we are now going to fall, are the same that we defeated when 
they were all awake, sober, armed and in order. We shall 


44 


IT IS WRITTEN” 


now fall upon them at a time when many of them are asleep, 
many intoxicated and all in confusion. Come, then, take 
your arms, and with the help of the gods I will lead you on/ 

“Turning to two of his friends, Cyrus added, ‘Show us the 
ways, for you are acquainted with them, and when we are in, 
conduct us by the readiest approach to the palace/ ‘Indeed/ 
said some, ‘it would not be at all wonderful if the doors of 
the palace were open, for the whole city seems tonight to be 
in a revel, but we shall meet with a guard in the front of the 
gates, for there is always one placed there/ 

“As soon as these words were spoken they went forward. 
They found the doors of the palace shut; those who were ap¬ 
pointed to attack the guards fell upon them as they were 
drinking at a large fire, and dealt with them as with enemies. 
As a great clamor and noise ensued those who were within 
heard the tumult, and when the king ordered them to see 
what was the matter, some of them threw open the gates and 
rushed out. Those who were with the two guides, as soon 
as they saw the gates unclosed, burst in and came up to the 
king and found him standing with his sword drawn. They 
mastered him and Cyrus sent troops of horsemen through 
the streets to tell those who were within the houses to re¬ 
main within, and these directions they obeyed.” 

When day came the people learned, that the city was taken 
and the king dead and so they all surrendered. Cyrus immedi¬ 
ately took possession, and we are glad to know that he treated 
his conquered foes with justice and mercy. 

So this is the story of the fall of Babylon. Some writers 
say that there were traitors within, and that may partly ac¬ 
count for its having been taken so easily. But Xenophon 
over and over again mentions strong drink and the Bible 
speaks of it, too. When men use alcohol they are not fit to 
defend themselves either from enemies without or from 
traitors within. To begin with, their brains are too blunted 
to realize the danger, and when at last they do understand it 
they are not strong enough to meet it. “It is written”: It is 

NOT FOR KINGS TO DRINK WINE, NOR FOR PRINCES STRONG DRINK* 


* Proverbs 31:4. 



IT IS WRITTEN 


45 


THE SCOUTS TALE 

Numbers 13:1-33; lJ t : 1-10. 

The children of Israel had traveled across the great and ter¬ 
rible wilderness and were nearing the land that God had 
promised to give them. Only a few more days and they would 
reach it, and the long weary journey would be over. At God’s 
command Moses sent a small party of scouts to spy out the 
country and report upon it. It was known that a number of 
different tribes inhabited the land. Moses told the spies to 
find out whether these people were strong or weak, few or 
many, whether they lived in tents or in cities and fortresses. 
They were also to notice what the land itself was like, whether 
it was fruitful or barren, and especially if there was plenty 
of wood. Moses told them to bring back samples of what 
grew there. 

The spies were twelve in number. Each tribe furnished one, 
and they were all leading men, every one a ruler and supposed 
to be old enough and wise enough to make a good survey 
and bring back a true report. 

The children of Israel from their encampment could see a 
range of hills stretching away to the north. Beyond these was 
the Promised Land. The spies were commanded to climb up 
into these hills from which they might get a good view, and 
then quietly and cautiously to penetrate into the country. 
Many weary days had the Israelites been traveling over the 
barren desert, and as they trudged on mile after mile 
it had seemed as if there were no end to the shifting sand 
and the rough rocks and the little pebbles that hurt their 
feet. Now they were camped close to the border of the new 
country of which they had heard so much, but thus far there 
were no signs of the beauty and richness that they had hoped 
to see. 

The twelve men were not long in reaching Canaan and they 
found it a most beautiful country. After crossing the moun¬ 
tain they descended into a lovely valley, called the Valley of 
Eshcol, where grapes were growing wild in great quantities; 
the bunches so large that it took two men to carry one of 


46 


“IT IS WRITTEN 


them. The spies brought pomegranates back with them along 
with the grapes. They brought figs also for figs grow abund¬ 
antly in Palestine, particularly among the mountains. 

The scouts were absent forty days and returned in safet) 
from their trip laden with the fruit that they had gathered. 
That told as plainly as any words that it was a goodly and 
pleasant land which they had reached.. It would have been 
no wonder if they had all talked at once and said something 
like this: “See what we have here! Bunches of grapes too 
heavy for one man to carry alone! Delicious pomegranates! 
Figs in plenty! Wheat and barley and olives grow there, too! 
We saw hillsides covered with vineyards, and large flocks of 
cattle and sheep feeding on the plains. Let us lose no time 
but go up and take possession of this rich and fertile land that 
the Lord our God has given unto us.” As a matter of fact 
they made no such speech. They said it was certainly a good 
land but they could never conquer it. It was no use trying. 
Why, there were giants there; they had seen them with their 
own eyes. Their cities, they said, were very great and were 
defended by strong walls. There were several different tribes 
in the land, all mighty warriors. “We be not able to go up 
against the people,” they urged, “for they are stronger than 
we.” 

This was the cowardly talk of all the spies but two. How¬ 
ever these two exceptions, Caleb and Joshua, spoke in a very 
different tone. “The land which we passed through to search 
it,” they said, “is an exceeding good land. Let us go up at 

ONCE AND POSSESS IT, FOR WE ARE WELL ABLE TO OVERCOME IT. Only 

rebel not against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the 
land; their defence is departed from them and the Lord is 
with us; fear them not.” 

The congregation of the children of Israel very foolishly 
believed the false report of the ten spies, and when the two 
spoke up in this brave and hopeful way they tried to stone 
them. So just when the nation, weary with wandering, had 
come to the border of Canaan, they had to turn round and 
march into the desert again by the way of the Red Sea. For 
forty years the Israelites remained outside the Land of Prom¬ 
ise, roaming about in the wilderness. They were not kept out 


47 


“'IT IS WRITTEN” 

by the giants, but by their own unbelief. God could have de¬ 
feated their enemies and driven them out in no time, but they 
did not trust Him. 

In America we had a foe worse than all the wild tribes of 
Palestine put together. This foe was the licensed liquor 
traffic. At last Congress submitted to the people the Eight¬ 
eenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution forbidding the 
manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. This amend¬ 
ment was ratified by forty-six states. Congress then enacted 
the Enforcement code commonly called the “Volstead Act” 
thus giving the law the name of the member of Congress who 
introduced it in that body. Now some people are not willing 
to obey the law and they still make and sell strong drink 
which is contrary to the constitution; hence the enemies of 
prohibition say, “You can never enforce the law; the liquor 
traffic is too strong; you cannot drive it out of America, 
there is no use trying.” They think of the money and influ¬ 
ence those have who wish to restore the traffic and they sav, 
“They are stronger than all that are against them.” They 
make one great mistake; they forget to count God. 

The ten spies forgot, too. They were so taken up with look¬ 
ing at the giants that they entirely forgot God was on their 
side. It is true those giants were very strong. In our own 
time travelers have found what appear to be the remains 
of some of their cities. No one lives in them but they are still 
well preserved. The houses are of black basalt rock, which is 
nearly as hard as iron, and the roofs as well as the walls are 
of stone. There are double doors made of slabs of stone seven 
feet high, and even the rafters and the window shutters are 
built of the same. Certainly they were a mighty race. But 
if they were strong, God was stronger, and the scouts ought 
to have known that. 

It is also true that the liquor traffic is exceedingly power¬ 
ful, but God is infinitely more so, and those who fight at His 
command can vanquish any foe. “It is written”: Be strong 
in the Lord and in the power of His might.* 

When one person is fearful and cowardly he causes others 
to be so, too. Those ten spies discouraged the whole nation 


Ephesians 6:10. 



48 


“IT IS WRITTEN 


and prevented them from going up to conquer their enemies. 
Nowadays it is the same. One person can do a deal of talking 
and sometimes the talk does a deal of harm. “Prohibition 
does not prohibit.” “It is useless to try to enforce the Eight¬ 
eenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, for we can 
never overcome the liquor traffic.” That is the way some 
folks talk today. They sound like the old spies come to life 
again. People who are fond of saying “can’t” are not a help 
to their country or to any good cause. It is a weakness for 
Christians to use such a word. 

The right way to talk about the liquor traffic is the way 
Caleb talked long ago. “Let us go up at once for we are well 
able to overcome it.” “At once,” because our nation has been 
altogether too slow in mastering this foe. No more time must 
be lost, but all true patriots, men and women, boys and girls, 
must unite to defeat America’s giant enemy, alcohol, and by 
God’s help to make an end of it entirely. 








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